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15″ MacBook Pro (Mid 2012)

LEM Staff - 2012.06.11

For the first time, Macs have built-in USB 3.0 support. The improved USB specification is over 10x as fast as USB 2.0 and has half the bandwidth of Thunderbolt. There are a lot of USB 3.0 drives on the market, and they are far more affordable than Thunderbolt drives. Best of all, Apple uses the same port for USB 2.0 and 3.0, while the standard in the PC world is separate ports for each protocol.

13″ and 15″ Mid 2012 MacBook Pros

There’s also an improved webcam, the 720p FaceTime HD camera with three times the resolution of previous MacBook FaceTime cameras. The new HD camera also supports today’s widescreen displays, and the native screen resolution of 1440 x 900 is the same as before. This is the last 15″ MacBook Pro model to ship without a Retina Display.

The 2012 MacBook Pro adopts Intel’s newest, more efficient Ivy Bridge processor technology, which incorporates Intel HD Graphics 4000 (up to 60% faster, according to Apple) in the CPU. The base 15″ model now runs a 2.3 GHz quad-core Core i7 processor (with Turbo Boost to 3.3 GHz) and has 4 GB of system memory and a 500 GB hard drive with a $1,799 price tag, while the “better” version increases speed to 2.6 GHz (3.6 GHz with Turbo Boost), double system memory to 8 GB, and includes a 750 GB hard drive.

Apple offers a number of build-to-order options: Upgrade system memory from 4 GB to 8 GB for $100 on the base model, choose a higher capacity or faster hard drive or an SSD, get a hi-res 1680 x 1050 display, and boost the 2.6 GHz model with a 2.7 GHz quad-core i7 for $250 more.

This is one of the first Macs to use Intel HD 4000 Graphics, and on the 15″ MacBook Pro it’s coupled with Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics. As before, it automatically switches between GPUs on the fly. The Intel GPU uses 384 MB of system memory, while the Radeon GPU has its own dedicated video memory (512 MB on the 2.3 GHz model, 1 GB on the 2.6 GHz one).

The 15″ MBP design puts all the ports (and a battery indicator) on the left side, leaving the right side for the SATA SuperDrive.

The new models are rated at 7 hours of battery power, and they use Bluetooth 4.0 along with 802.11n WiFi for wireless connectivity.

The MacBook Pro has an 18-bit glossy display (not the 24 bits you might expect). Like the iPad and iPhone, it does not have an easily replaceable battery. Cost to have Apple replace the 77.5 Watt-hour battery out of warranty is $129.

Closed Lid Mode: All Intel ‘Books support “lid closed” (or clamshell) mode, which leaves the built-in display off and dedicates all video RAM to an external display. To used closed lid mode, your ‘Book must be plugged into the AC adapter and connected to an external display and a USB or Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (you might also want to consider external speakers). Power up your ‘Book until the desktop appears on the external display and then close the lid. Your ‘Book will go to sleep, but you can wake it by moving the mouse or using the keyboard. The built-in display will remain off, and the external monitor will become your only display. Since all video RAM is now dedicated to the external monitor, you may have more colors available at higher resolutions.

To resume use of the internal display, you need to disconnect the external display, put the computer to sleep, and then open the lid. This will wake up your ‘Book and restore use of the built-in display.

Intel-based Macs use a partitioning scheme known as GPT. Only Macintel models can boot from GPT hard drives. Both PowerPC and Intel Macs can boot from APM (Apple’s old partitioning scheme) hard drives, which is the format you must use to create a universal boot drive in Leopard. Power PC Macs running any version of the Mac OS prior to 10.4.2 cannot mount GPT volumes. PowerPC Macs won’t let you install OS X to a USB drive or choose it as your startup volume, although there is a work around for that.

Drives

optical drive: 8x dual-layer SuperDrive writes DVD±R and DVD+R at up to 8x, DVD-RW at up to 4x; dual-layer DVD±RW at up to 4x; reads DVDs at 8x (double-layer at 6x), dual-layer and DVD-ROM at 6x; writes CD-R at 24x, writes CD-RW at 16x, reads CDs at 24x on 3 Gbps SATA bus

Expansion

Thunderbolt: 1 port

USB: 2 USB 3.0 ports, only 1 high-powered device device allowed

FireWire 400: none

FireWire 800: 1 port, backward compatible with FireWire 400

Ethernet: 10/100/gigabit

WiFi: 802.11n AirPort Extreme built in, three antennas support up to 450 Mbps bandwidth

Mac ‘Book Power Management Adventures, Charles W Moore, ‘Book Value, 2009.05.19. If your ‘Book won’t power up, shuts down while your working, or has other power issues, resetting its internal power manager may clear things up.

Why You Should Partition Your Mac’s Hard Drive, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 2008.12.11. “At the very least, it makes sense to have a second partition with a bootable version of the Mac OS, so if you have problems with your work partition, you can boot from the ’emergency’ partition to run Disk Utility and other diagnostics.”

How to clone Mac OS X to a new hard drive, Simon Royal, Tech Spectrum, 2008.10.07. Whether you want to put a bigger, faster drive in your Mac or clone OS X for use in another Mac, here’s the simple process.

Win the depreciation game by buying on the low end, Charles W Moore, ‘Book Value, 2008.06.24. The worst depreciation afflicts high-end models. By buying a less powerful version, choosing certified refurbished, or picking up a used computer, you’ll come out ahead.

Windows on Macs: Three paths for integration, Jason Packer, Macs in the Enterprise, 2008.05.14. Mac users have three routes for running Windows apps: Run Windows using Boot Camp or virtualization, or use a compatibility layer such as WINE.